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Elena

Most of us know that we won't remain happily forever with our first love. I, the writer, know it too. (Of course the character doesn't at 18, she will learn it during the story).

She got a teenage crush on an important man when she was 14. She hadn't labelled it as love until a friend heard her confessions and labelled it as such (she was 18 now, and happy to live in his shadow, to admire him from afar. As she had characterised this puppy love a few years later, "I loved Alessandro more with a faithful shepherd dog's love, silently jealous when the master seemed to prefer a little lapdog with a ribbon, than with a maiden's love. My love for Luigi is different, the one for a best friend, trusted adventure partner, my soulmate.")

But from here, coming to work in his shadow, until showing openly her love for Alessandro in the last moment (when he is led to execution), I need to have it developed a little, for the writers to care for it and connect with it, and this is what I am struggling with. Again, it is NOT the main love story of the book, but even after Alessandro is lost and she finds Luigi, she is still thinking of him here and now (well, I am happily married for 14 years, and still thinking from time to time about 2 previous love interests, in the human way "I wish they are well and happy", or "I remember this moment from high-school...which involves him", or "I remember this place I visited only once, with him", not in a "what if" or anything like this. She is the same way.)

This is why I need to develop those moments beyond the 4 pages I wrote for 2 years of her life, to make the writers care for that little, unrequested, one-sided love story too, and I don't know how. Please, help.

I had introduced him getting wounded and she watching him, together with her best friend, the young nurse, and also her making an act of courage in saving his life (later dismissed as "I have done it for serving the Republic, Sir".) Still I don't think I have achieved what I wanted, and I don't know how to go about it.

Parties of all kinds (masquerades, balls, public festivals in the street) are popular sitewide events. Which are the plot twists you recommend? (They can go up to spoiling the party, like a murder or a big theft, or something which wouldn't affect the label of success on a party - eg. a princess's wedding isn't a thing one would want spoiled, and there can be twists but not of the highly bad kind, but a street festival or a masquerade might be.)

In order to provide an incentive more for people to complete their threads, I have thought of adapting something I saw on other sites - people getting an achievement point for each completed thread.

The site I knew using this kind of achievements offers them to all the participants in a completed thread. I was just wondering if this is the fairest way, when some might have abandoned the thread and only one is trying to finish it.

On another line of thought, if I give a point only to the one who ends the thread, wouldn't it lead to rushed endings from someone who wants to get the award?

I understand that in a normal story, written by only one person, there can be certain antisocial characters, keeping to themselves only, being too shy/ afraid/ haughty/ wanting to be ignored/ to get as little interaction as possible. And for some stories, this works well.

But in a RPG, it is supposed to be collaborative, to have different characters and players interacting. Why would my characters want to interact with somebody who doesn;t want friends, enemies, workmates... who wants to be ignored/ keeps to himself?

Every time when I see such bios or posts I keep wondering why. Tell me about your experiences in the matter!

We are usually told that activity breeds activity, and in any lull we should post more in order to encourage others to post and to give them a good example. I have seen this advice on RPG-D several times, and I agree with it.

However, my writing partner has another opinion. She thinks that the administrator's activity doesn't make much difference. It doesn't count, because it is one person vs many others.

I'm just saying that for a lot of people right now it might be a once-in-a-while thing, and maybe they are enjoying it anyway like that, since they do keep coming back. If that's the way it is for them, for whatever dozen reasons, I wouldn't be too hard on yourself. You've provided a good thing that people are enjoying, and it could be that no "incentive" in the world would really make people change the way that they're approaching it right now.

Not to say "stop trying it's useless", but rather to say don't beat yourself up, because it's probably not really something you can make different as of now... And it could very well change,but probably not as a result of something you can bring about all at once. I don't think you can necessarily change the way other people are managing their own time.

If you take a breather it might help you. If the site "dies" for a few weeks while you're not posting as much, I doubt it would be permanent damage. If people aren't posting that often and most of the last posts are you anyway, then posting less often yourself may not actually make a huge difference - since many people would perhaps not post within that week anyway... I think it could be people just have their own mental schedules and rhythms that don't include posting as frequently as you, and your posting more won't necessarily affect that a whole lot, if that's the way they're approaching it. I don't think you can necessarily change them.

Somehow, her words make sense too, but I think only partially. I think a good example still matters. What do you think?

1) How much do you think that "Activity breeds activity" is true and why yes or no?

2) Which are your solutions for stimulating activity and enthusiasm?

(Besides getting a new skin, I am opening new threads, promoting new plots or twists to the existing plots - also asking my members what they would want to see/ take part in/ feel more inspired with. I am also launching contests to promote activity.)